The Barbecue Chicken Dish That Cary Grant Couldn't Get Enough Of

Few stars from the 1930s and 1940s have the staying power that Cary Grant does. Yes, the Honorary Academy Award winner passed on almost 40 years ago, but he's still one of the best actors Hollywood ever had. (This is a food blog, but just go watch "His Girl Friday" and "Only Angels Have Wings", you'll thank me later.) So, you'd think that an incredibly rich and handsome actor like Mr. Grant would prefer the finer things in life: caviar, Champagne, steak, lobster — whatever foods were considered fancy back then. But no, one of his favorite dishes was a barbecue chicken dish. Although Cary Grant was no stranger to fine dining and even allegedly inspired the famous Chinese chicken salad, this is most likely a myth.

The great thing about this dish is how unpretentious it is, and there's something utterly endearing about the fact that this recipe isn't his own, but rather something he saw and then made. Once you've browned the pieces of chicken, all you have to do is bake them in a homemade barbecue sauce. Although the instructions are a bit vague, saying to simple cook the chicken until tender without specifying a time, you're probably safe following your cooking instincts. About an hour or so should do the trick, depending on the size of the chicken pieces.

There's something fascinating about celebrities and food. Whether it's watching them eat extremely spicy wings on The Hot Ones or just normal chicken wings, we can't seem to get enough of knowing what celebrities eat. As acutely observed by Bon Appétit, it seems we're interested in what earthly delights celebrities partake in because we put them on such a pedestal. We're used to seeing them in shows and films that, you know, focus on the plot and not what they're cooking (except for, of course, the four-hour arthouse "Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels" where Jeanne makes a meatloaf — but that's not quite our typical Hollywood movie.) When we discover a celebrity's favorite meal, it really knocks them off the pedestal that they perhaps never wanted to be placed on.

Now, when a celebrity knows how to cook, you get a peek at their inner lives. Cary Grant's recipe reminds me of the recipes Bea Arthur would talk about, such as mentioning her favorite lamb dish to make during her one-woman show back in 2002 or her cream of carrot soup that was actually published back in 1975 during the height of her "Maude" fame. To me, this really humanizes them; it's so intimate to imagine someone like Cary Grant or Bea Arthur taking the time in their kitchen to prepare their own meals. It's perhaps a nice reminder that they're all just human after all, even if they eat popcorn in a really weird way, huh, Mr. Cruise?